page_title: Stoneleigh, Surrey
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Stoneleigh, Surrey / History / Later history
caption_attribution_description: English: St John the Baptist's parish church, Stoneleigh Park Road, Stoneleigh, Epsom, Surrey, seen from the east
context_page_description: Stoneleigh is a suburb of southwest London, occupying most of the northern part of the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, approximately 11 miles from central London. In the 2011 Census, the population was 8741.
  The construction of the railway station in 1932, was responsible for initiating the development of much of Stoneleigh. It was part of the ecclesiastical parishes of Ewell and Cuddington until the building of its church, St John the Baptist, in 1939. The Broadway is the main shopping street and the settlement is divided principally between two electoral wards: Stoneleigh and Auriol.
context_section_description: Between the world wars, demand for housing on commuter routes into London meant the area grew rapidly. Maps from 1931 show the land was mainly "Meadowland and permanent grass" with patches of "Forest and woodland" and "Heathland, moorland, commons and rough pasture".
  Stoneleigh railway station was opened in July 1932, on land acquired from the Stoneleigh Park Estate in July 1931. The first houses were built in 1933 and the first shops on Stoneleigh Broadway opened in November of the same year. The Stoneleigh Hotel, a pub that was never a hotel and is now a Grade II listed building, opened in November 1935 and additional shops were built on the Broadway in the late 1930s.
  Stoneleigh railway station was originally to be named 'Stoneleigh Park' to denote that it was an area of market gardening, but this did not happen, probably due to the next three stations on the line north all being called 'Park' (Worcester Park, Motspur Park and Raynes Park). In 1938 the Rembrandt cinema was opened, next to the railway line on the Kingston Road. It operated for 60 years until its closure in April 1998. The building was subsequently demolished and replaced by flats. The red-brick Anglican church of St John the Baptist, next to the station, was built in 1939. Two large schools were built in Stoneleigh in the 1930s to accommodate the large suburban growth in the area, as well as several churches.
  From the Victorian era until c.1939 many homes were built in Stoneleigh Park, replacing market gardens and small farms, on what was the northern part of the parish of Ewell and part of Cuddington. There was also a brick, tile, and pottery works, called the Nonsuch Works and two flour mills.
caption: St John the Baptist Church, Stoneleigh
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